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1. Oh the agony of decisions…

   I love me some old Van Halen (the Sammy years don’t even count in my book), and they deserve a world of props for shit stomping disco. But FZ was just too good, too deep, too broad, too genius. And while there aren’t many guys better with six strings and ten fingers than Eddie Van Halen, FZ was.

   So i’ll go with the guy as comfortable with jazz as he was with doo-wop, who could rock and pen classical compositions…with bonus points for writing songs about sex with poodles, bdsm nuns, homicidal instruments, fur trappers, elements of grammar and so much more.

   But it’s still tough to vote against this: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd2ex_van-halen-mean-street_music

2. Followed my head, not my heart and went with Zappa. Not a huge fan, aside from the immortal “Uncle Meat” album. (I was always more of a Beefheart guy.)

   But I respect his work: He needs to move on in TOR: Legends.

3. Moody Blues here.

4. MB.

5. I gotta say that i’m a little disappointed in that i thought VH and Phish were in a pod together, and i was looking forward to Trey Anastasio being forced to drink the elixir of Rock from David Lee Roth’s codpiece…

6. Went with my gut on this one, had to choose VH based on their strong catalog and their inspiration to countless young guitar players. I know the smart choice is Zappa, but when I walk into a music store there’s a 99% chance of someone playing Eruption. If Zappa had a bass player who had a Jack Daniels bass he may have got my vote. Also I’m a little shocked that the Verve is even mentioned in this contest, I know they’re pretty big over seas, but I never thought of them in the same realm as the other 4.

7. D: I think VH’s case would be even stronger if it weren’t for, well, everything after Roth left. As for Verve, they got my vote (and it may be the only one they get). They were bigger in Europe (aside from “Bittersweet Symphony”) but their influence has been simply massive. I have a hard time hearing Britpop of any stripe – and this includes Radiohead – and imagining how it could have evolved without Storm in Heaven.

   Also, ain’t nobody said this was the American ToR. There will be a number of bands who enjoyed greater success overseas than they did here.

8. Darrell, i agree completely. I think that VH probably should win. ToR comes down to personal preference for me; Zappa’s in my top 5 favorite artists and that’s just the way it is.

9. All good bands, but the choice is easy. One of these artists sucessfully defended the first amendment from power mongering scum, warned us of the dangers of sampling long before the industry used it to replace musical ability, and left us a body of work of the depth and caliber of the greatest classical composers. Van Halen, on the other hand, did a lot of blow off strippers asses, which was cool, but not a particularly strong contribution to music. The Moody Blues successfully set out to prove that everyone in the world had shorter attention spans than they did. The Cure just cried until their mascara ran. And The Verve, well let’s just say the drugs DID work, a bit too well.

   • Josh: looks like smartass runs in the family.

10. I have a hard time imagining some of my favorite bands existing, or at least sounding as they do, without the influences of the Moody Blues. And I’m not just talking about Nights in White Satin either (although it is one of my all time favorite songs).

    Even so, though, this bracket was tough.

11. Zappa wins hands down IMHO. People don’t realize what a good guitar player he was and he did jazz, classical, do-wop, disco, plus rock. His lyrics were genius and the songs were so well mixed. He would use the cheapest speakers he could find for the final mix because he said that if he could make the music sound good on crummy speakers, imagine what it would sound like on regular speakers. Plus, anyone that could slam Tipper Gore at a congressional hearing should win just because of that.

    Jeff

12. And who can forget the good times had by all at the Madison Panty Sniffing Festival?

13. I think people on this board actually know how talented Zappa is, which is why I expect to see Zappa in the top 10 or higher. I don’t think the causal music fan does. I can appreciate the band and their skill. However even someone like me who has been recording and in the “biz” for so many years, I have a hard time remembering any tunes he wrote. A few weeks ago Zappa plays Zappa came to one of the many quality free outdoor music series in Buffalo, one of my co-workers had no idea who Frank was, or what Zappa plays Zappa was. If this was tournament was strictly based on influence amongst musicians and their peers Zappa would come very close to winning.

14. Given how you are doing this stage of the tournament, I think I would have just dropped the seed number, removing any chance of bias. But that’s just me.

    Also, I LIKE some of Van Hagar’s stuff. Heh. That’s probably because we used to get amped up for track meets with it in high school.

15. Chance of bias? Hey, I get one vote just like everybody else. And right now the band I voted for is tied for last.

16. I wasn’t talking about you, blockhead. I already know YOU’RE hopeless. 🙂

17. As much as I think FZ is genius, Eddie VH defined an entire decade of music (the 80s would have been very different without his influence, IMHO). Though the rest of VH pretty much sucked, I still have to vote for VH (though tonight, I’ll probably listen to FZ 🙂

18. Verve. Not a prayer they’ll win in this group…

19. No, but those of us with the gift of discernment must nonetheless vote our consciences.

20. I have to agree with Josh.
    For me the vote came down to two bands I used to love.
    Then I thought about it for a wihle. When a band starts to suck after the pelvic thruster leaves, maybe I shouldn’t be seriously comparing them to the person that created “Broadway the Hard Way”.
    I really liked Moody Blues and the Verve, just not to the degree I did Zappa.
    The Cure lost everyone’s respect with “It’s Friday I’m in Love”.

    @jeff watson: I’m saving Tipper as a reason to vote for Twisted Sister on the off chance they turn up. 😉

21. Sam
    I seriously doubt “the gift of discernment” is what you have. 😉

22. Zappa may be a genius, but most of his music is grating. I voted for VH, though I thought about the Cure.

23. It’s real nice to see Zappa win this one. I’m not a fan of Van Halen at all. Zappa had more creativity in his little finger than that whole band.

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